Catalan cinema took home seven awards
In the Official Section, director Júlia de Paz premiered her second feature film worldwide The good daughter (Astra Pictures, Avalon, Krater Films), a film about family and intergenerational bonds that follows the story of Carmela.
After the separation of her parents, Carmela and her mother move to her grandmother’s house. As she tries to adapt to her new situation, Carmela longs to spend more time at her father’s house, a plastic artist whom she admires and idolizes. The shadow of this will lead the three generations of women in the family to decide the future they deserve.
The Catalan production returns home with three outstanding awards: the Grand Prix for Best Film, the Best Actress award for Kiara Arancibia and the Audience Award. The film is the result of the short film Harta (Mayo Films), selected in Shortcat 2022.
In the Just Film Youth and Children’s Film Festivalsub-festival of the PÖFF – Black Nights Film Festival, in the section In Focus: Catalonia, Children’s Competition Program and Children’s Rights Programme, the feature film was presented Leo & Lou (Zeta Cinema, Zeta Audiovisual, Frida Films, Aurora Audiovisual AIE, Lunatica Limited, Motion Picture Management) by Carlos Solano. The film won the Best Film Award.
The Catalan short film also stood out strongly and was awarded at PÖFF Shorts: the piece of animation Because today is Saturday (Studio Kimchi, Animais AVPL, La Clairière Production) by Alice Guimarães won the award for Best Animation.
In the framework of industry, two Catalan projects have been awarded at the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the event where projects in the development and post-production phase are presented that seek opportunities for financing, co-production and distribution in front of international professionals in the sector.
On the one hand, the project presented at TV Beats Co-Financing Market, Aigües de foscor (Lastor Media, Cataluña Federation Studios, Federation Spain, New Media), by Víctor Garcia has won the TV Drama Vision Göteborg award.
On the other hand, the project of David Gutiérrez Camps The convulsions (Auca Films, Cinética Produccions, Timber Films, IMY Prod), which was presented at International Works in Progress, took home the International Works in Progress Public Favorite award.
The importance of Catalan audiovisual
For a few years now, Catalan cinema has been leaving an important mark on Europe. Audiovisual productions of fiction, animation and documentary play a very important role in festivals everywhere, receive international awards and premiere on screens all over the world. The recognition of critics and the international public is unanimous, and the prestige of Catalan professionals is a reflection of a very powerful industry, with undeniable talent and training of enormous quality.
In 2024, the Department of Culture dedicated more than 60 million to the audiovisual sector, a record figure. Audiovisual continues to be one of the axes of the Government for this legislature and it is a priority to promote it as a strategic sector. The Department of Culture’s subsidy lines – managed by the ICEC – cover the entire audiovisual value chain, with items earmarked, for example, for development and co-production. The Ramon Llull Institute, for its part, promotes the internationalization of audiovisual through its lines of competition and collaboration with international film festivals.
This support has helped to make visible and consolidate some of the values for which Catalan audiovisual stands out: the talent of professionals, the existence of internationally recognized training centers, the work and commitment of a powerful audiovisual industry, which draws on a long tradition and generates an enormous variety of productions, and the richness of a very large number of festivals that place the country on the international map.
